The practical planter; containing directions for the planting of waste land, and management of wood: with a new method of rearing the oak

Front matter

THE

PRA'^TICAL PLANTER:

CONTAINING DIRECTIONS FOR THE PLANTING OF WASTE LAND, AND MANAGEMENT OF WOOD :

CHAPTER I. Brief account of the various kinds of trees

WHOSE culture IS DESCRIBED IN THIS WORK, 36

Scots Fir, or Pine, . . . . ib.

The Larch, . . . . .42

The Spruce, .... 44

The Silver Fir, . . . . ib.

Balm of Gilead, .... 45 The Oak, ..... ib.

The Ash, ..... 47 The Elm, ..... 48 The Plane, or Sycamore, . . . ib.

The Beech, . . , . .49

The Chestnut, .... ib.

xii CONTENTS.

Page

The Birch, . . . . . 51

The Alder, ..... ib.

The WiUow and Poplar, . , , 52

Hazel, Hawthorn, Holly, &c. . . 53

CHAPTER H.

Rotation of crops, . . , ^64

Propagating by cuttings and layers, . 74 Weeding, ..... 75

CHAPTER HI.

Purchasing Plants, ... c 84

CHAPTER IV.

On the qualities of soil most proper for the different VARIETIES OF FOREST TREES ; WITH RE- MARKS ON ASPECT AND ELEVATION, . . 93

CHAPTER V.

Directions for ascertaining the quality of avaste land from the nature of the wild plants that grow on it, . , . .112

CONTENTS.

xiii

CHAPTER VI.

Page

Sect. 1. Preparation of the ground for the reception

of the plants, . . . ih.

Sect. 2. On the Age which the different kinds of trees ought to be when they are removed from the Nursery to Waste Land — Description of various Methods of Planting, 130

Sect. 3. Season of Planting — Distances and Order

of the Plants — Roads in Plantations, 143

Sect. 4. Supplementary remarks — Shelter for Deciduous Trees, &c. . . . 150

CHAPTER Vn.

Sect. 1. Pruning, . , . , ib.

Sect. 2, Thinning, . . . .173

CHAPTER Vin.

On the Culture and Management of Oak, , 182

Sect. 1. Opinion that the soil and climate of Scotland are not calculated for the production of Oak, examined and refuted, ib.

Sect. 2. On the defects and errors of the common

method of propagating Oak, . 200

Sect. 3. New method of rearing Oak described, 220

XIV CONTENTS.

Page

Sect. 4. Account of experiments illustrative of the advantages of the method of raising Oak, explained in the foregoing section, . 238

Sect. 5. Directions for rearing succession crops of Oak, and for the recovery of young Oaks in a sickly or unthriving condition, . 247

CHAPTER IX.

Plants proper for underwood, and their culture, . . . . -.269

CHAPTER X.

CHAPTER XL

Account of Sir Henry Steuart's method of

giving immediate effect to wood, . 298

Selection of subjects, . . . 299

Preparation of the soil, . . . 305

Preparation of the trees for removal, . 309

Taking up and transporting of the trees, . 315

Planting of the Trees in their new situation, 320

Treatment of the Trees subsequently to removal, 329

CHAPTER XIL

Hints for giving quick effect to wood, in the

PLEASURE grounds OF GENTLEMEN's SEATS AND VILLAS, ..... 337

Kinds of Trees which it is necessary to introduce, 341

CONTENTS. XV

Page

Choice of Plants, . , . . 343

Preparation of Ground, . . . 348

Planting' the Trees, . . . .337

CHAPTER XIII.

Spanish Chestnut, .... 390 Plane, or Sycamore, . . .391

Alder, Poplar, and Willow, . . 393

Horse- Chestnut, Mountain- Ash, Hawthorn, and

Hazel, ..... 394 Laburnum and Holly, . . . ib.

Appendix

No. I. Additional Remarks on Draining, . 399

Table skewing the solid contents of 1 running Yard of Drain, from 1 foot to 4| feet deep, and from 1 to 10 feet broad, . 408

II. Additional Remarks on Fencing, . . 409

Xvi CONTENTS.

No. III. Catalogue of the Medium Prices of Forest Trees throughout Scotland for the year 1830, . . . . 413

IV. Catalogue of Evergreen and Flowering Shrubs, adapted for Underwood, with their Medium Prices throughout Scotland, at the ages proper for removing them from the Nursery, for the year 1830, . . 418

V. Tables for Measuring Timber, and Stone Dikes, and for ascertaining the Number of Trees to be Planted in an Acre, . 423

1. For measuring the Number of Solid

Feet in any Tree, from 1 to 42 Feet long, and from 4 to 40 inches in the Side of the Square, . . 425

2. Showing the Length of 1 Rood of

Stone-dike, from 6 Inches to 10 Feet in Height, . . 439

3. Showing the Number of Trees that

can be planted on an Acre, whether the Scotch or the Imperial Acre, from 1 Foot to 25 Feet distance Plant from Plant, . 440

ON

PLANTING, &c.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

T. ADVANTAGES OF PLANTING.

From the unrivalled extent of its commerce and manufactures, as well as from its vast naval establishment, this country consumes an immense quantity of timber. The value of that article annually imported into Great Britain and Ireland, is said to amount to no less a sum than L. 1,600,000 Sterling* We have, at the same time, in Scotland, to say nothing of the other tv^^o kingdoms, upwards of twelve millions of acres of waste land, completely useless for agricultural purposes, and of extremely little value as pasturage, but of which two-thirds, at least,

* That the statement here made, (namely, that the annual import of foreign\imber amounts to £1,600,000), must fall far below, instead of exceeding, the truth, the reader will be con-

A

INTRODITCTORY REMARKS.

are well adapted for the production of wood. By planting these extensive tracts, our home supply of timber might easily be rendered equal to our demands, and a sum which, according to the present

vinced by consulting the following table of duties paid on this, article in the year 1827 : —

Pine Timber

Balks and ufers, ....

£ 1,096

Battens and batten-ends> .

111,013

Clap and pipe boards,

634,737

Deal-ends, .....

32,820

Fire-wood, .....

2,913

Fir quarters, . . . .

3,520

Lath-wood, . , . . .

35,821

Masts and spars, . < . .

21,464

Fir-logs, 8 inches square, and upwards,

575,452

£ 1,420,052

Oak, Elm, Ash.

Handspikes.. . . . -

£ 660

Knees for ships (oak),

1,262

Oak plank, - . . =

22,752

Oars (ash), ....

1,222

Staves (oak), , . = .

50,139

Oak logs .....

30,102

Wainscot logs . . ,

13,270

IJnenumerated timber.

7,880

£ 127,287

ADVANTAGES OF PLANTING.

rate of wages, would maintain fifty thousand labourers and their families, or between two and three hundred thousand individuals, be retained in the comitry, instead of going, as at present, to add to the riches and prosperity of other nations.

It is not, however, by regarding the planting of our uncultivated moors as a means of mere pecuniary saving, that its national advantages are most conspicuous. A still clearer view of its utility, may be seen in the evils that threaten us, if our forests are not speedily improved and rendered more extensive. Their present state is such, that, were our foreign intercourse cut off, they would be completely exhausted in the course of four or five years. This would be the case, even if every sort of timber answered every purpose alike ; for, of some sorts, we have not a sufficient quantity to last half that time. Our oak, for instance, would scarce stand out two years, supposing us to be, as at present, in a state of profound peace, and our navy requiring no addition to its strength. One hundred and eighty thousand cubic feet, or between four and five thousand tons of this sort, are consumed in building a ship of seventy-four guns. There are not so many ftdl grown oak trees in Scotland, as would build two ships of this size ; and the royal forests in England

A 2 are said to be in such an exhausted state, as not to be able to answer one-fortieth part of the demands made upon them.

How formidable, therefore, would be the ineouTeniencies which we would labour under, were a stop put, even for a short period, to our intercourse with those countries from which we import the twelve millions of cubic feet of timber, which we require annually to make up the deficiencies of our native resources. To say nothing of the shock which such an occurrence would give to our commercial shipping interests, and other civil departments, no means would be left us of keeping up our navy, — the chief bulwark of our defence. Yet there is surely no impossibility, nor even very great improbability, of our being engaged, some time or other, in war with those very states, from which our supplies of wood are, for the most part, derived.

But our foreign trade in timber must soon be attended with great difficulties, thougli we should for ever remain in a state of the profoundest peace with all surrounding nations. The principal sources from which we are furnished with this article at present, are Canada and the northern parts of the Continent of Europe. From the former we import an immense quantity of almost every variety of the

ADVANTAGES OF PLANTING.

more useful kinds of timber. It is the supplies brought from this quarter that are the chief cause of the low rate at which wood has sold during late years. Were these supplies dried up, the price of the article would rise to a degree that would be severely felt, in every department in which it is used. And, though the forests of America are of vast extent, the parts of them which are available to us, are confined within limits comparatively narrow, and will soon be exhausted. It is only when wood is situated in the neighbourhood of navigable rivers, or near the sea- coast, that the inhabitants of Canada can derive any advantage from cutting it down for exportation. In a country where there are no roads, and where wages are high, wood cannot be brought from any considerable distance inland, but at an enormous expense. The carriage of a log thirty or forty miles overland, in such circumstances, would thrice exceed in cost its voyage of three thousand miles across the Atlantic ; and the price of wood in this country would require to be more than double what it is at present, to leave any profit at all to the exporter. Now, the banks of the navigable rivers are the very situations, where colonists, for obvious reasons, prefer to settle ; and, as the population increases, the woods must, by some means or other, be cleared away. Hence, it is no uncommon thing for thousands of acres of it to be consumed by fire* in a single season, for the purpose of

* The method of burning, pursued in British America, for the purpose of clearing the land, often consumes far beyond the limits intended by those who practise it. Whether the dreadful conflagration, which took place at Miramichi in 1825, proceeded from this, or some other cause, does not seem to be well ascertained ; but it furnishes a striking example of the mischief that may be done by fire among growing wood, and may be quoted as a warning against tampering with that element in the neighbourhood of plantations, — a practice to which many people in Scotland are too much addicted, on occasions of heath and furze burning. The following is an account of the above mentioned conflagration, from Macgregor's " Sketches of the Maritime Colonies of British America —

" In October 1825, upwards of a hundred miles of the country, on the north side of Miramichi river, became a scene of the most dreadful conflagration that has perhaps ever occurred in the history of the world. In Europe, we can scarcely form a conception of the fury and rapidity with which the fires rage through the American forests during a dry hot season ; at which time the underwood, decayed vegetable substances, fallen branches, bark, and withered trees, are as inflammable as a total absence of moisture can render them. When these tremendous fires are once in motion, or, at least, when the flames extend over a few miles of the forest, the surrounding air becomes highly rarified, and the wind naturally increases to a hurricane. It appears that the woods had been on both sides:

ADVANTAGES OF PLANTING.

preparing the ground for cultivation. In the course of forty or fifty years, therefore, it may be as uncommon to import wood from the British settlements in North America, as at present it is to bring the same commodity from the United States,

It would appear, then, that the cultivation of wood at home, and the planting of our lands not appropriated to agriculture, are objects of no small importance, considered in a national view. The private advantages to be derived by the proprietors of land, from a proper attention to the same department of rural economy, may be rendered no less conspicuous.

of the north-west branch, partially on lire for some time, but not to an alarming extent, until the 7th of October, when it came on to blow furiously from the north-west, and the inhabitants on the banks of the river were suddenly alarmed by a tremendous roaring in the woods, resembling the incessant rolling of thunder ; while, at the same time, the atmosphere became thickly darkened with smoke. They had scarcely time to ascertain the cause of this phenomenon, before all the surrounding woods appeared in one vast blaze, the flames ascending more than a hundred feet above the tops of the loftiest trees, and the fire, like a gulf in flames, rolling forward with inconceivable celerity. In less than an hour Dougiastown and Newcastle were enveloped in one vast blaze, and many of the wretched inhabitants, unable to eycape, perished in the midst i)f this terrible fire."

INTKODUCTORY llEMARKS.

The uncultivated grounds, in this part of the country at least, are, in their present state, of extremely little value. On an average, they are not worth above a shilling per acre, as pasturage either for black cattle or sheep, nor do they yield more to their proprietors. By turning them into woodland, however, their value, taking the best of them with the worst, might be increased at least a hundred-fold. An acre of land which is dry, and in its natural state covered with thriving heath, though it have no higher marks of fertility than appear in the production of this hardy plant, will bring six hundred Scots firs or larches to such a degree of maturity in sixty years, that they will be worth, on an average, ten shillings each, or three hundred pounds Sterling in whole. This sum, divided by the age of the trees, gives a rent of five pounds annually for the land. Nothing will be to deduct from this for the expense of planting, inclosing, and management, as three or four thousand trees being at first put into the groimd, those cut down from time to time, in order to reduce the plantation to the necessary thinness, will do more than return the money laid out with full interest. Supposing none of the thinnings taken out the first five and twenty years to be worth any thing, and that there are at

ADVANTAGES OF PLANTING.

that time four Imndred more than the numher which will have room to stand till they reach their full size, and that these four hundred being cut during the next ten years, sell at sixpence each, one with another, their price will amount to ten pounds, a sum more than double what will be necessary to clear all the expenses laid out on the plantation from first to last.

The above calculation is intended for land that is neither of the best nor worst kind that we meet with in our moors, but of a medium quality ; and it is designedly made so as to fall below, rather than exceed the truth. Where the soil is of a quality adapted for the more valuable kinds of timber, or even fertile enough to bring firs to their maximum size, much greater profits will be returned*. As much of this superior quality will at least be found in our waste-lands, as will make up for the deficiencies of the worst kinds of soil, and bring the average profits of planting to the above mentioned standard, the prices of timber being the same as they are at present.

But if we increase the extent of our forests, it is

* ReturiiH will often be as high as £ 10, £ 15, and £ 20 annually.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

often said, far beyond the boundaries which they now occupy, there will be a much larger supply of wood in the market than at present is the case, and the price of the article must of necessity fall. Supposing this to be true, it would still be a very weak argument, when used, as it commonly is, to dissuade from planting. Were timber reduced to onefifth part of its present value, and gave but one instead of five pounds for the annual rent of an ^cre of ground, the profits of raising it on our waste lands would still be immense, if these lands in their natural state are not worth, on the whole, more than one shilling per acre annually. To suppose, however, that the price of wood will ever in this country be depressed so low, is a most absurd hypothesis. Before the extent of our fiUl grown plantations can be increased in any considerable degree, allowing that planting should be henceforth carried on with a spirit imparalleled at any former period, fifty or sixty years mvist intervene. By that time our American supplies will, in all probability, have fallen off so much as to leave a void in the market, which will afford ample room for the increase of our own produce.

But there are other advantages to be derived from_ planting, besides the profits that arise from the sale

ADVANTAGES OF PLANTING.

of the trees. It is a very common objection to the cultivation of wood, that it encroaches on the extent of our pastures, and thereby has a tendency to diminish the numbers of our cattle. Were this true, it would have no weight as an argument, as we have already proved that the waste lands of this country are infinitely more profitable when employed in raising wood than in raising live stock. Nothing, however, can be more false. For twenty or thirty years after a piece of ground is planted, indeed, cattle must be entirely excluded, as, if admitted, they would utterly destroy the young trees. But, during this period, the pasturage is undergoing a very great amelioration. As the trees grow up, the heath, which affords little nourishment, is gradually eradicated, and its place supplied by a tender natural grass, that makes excellent food for cattle. The pasturage thus becomes, at least, three times more valuable than it was before, at the same time that it has the advantage of being so well sheltered, that cattle may be turned abroad upon it much earlier in spring, and kept on it later in autumn, than the cold will permit in the open fields. In the shelter of a wood, indeed, lean stock may be sent abroad at every season of the year, without sustaining the smallest injury.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

Planting may even be used as a means of preparing uncultivated land for agricultural improvement. It may seem a very paradoxical fact, but it is nevertheless true, that w^ood, instead of impoverishing the ground on which it is produced, enriches it. There is very little of our waste land, that, if trenched or ploughed, will carry even a moderate crop of grain, unless it receive a considerable quantity of manure. After bearing timber, however, the contrary is found to be true. Every one who has seen old woodlands brought into cultivation must be aware of this, though to others the assertion will, no doubt, appear groundless. For my own part, I have seen the fact, as it is here stated, so clearly exemplified, that I consider it to be established as firmly as experience can establish any thing. Instead, however, of detailing the particulars of any of the cases that have fallen under my own observation, in confirmation of the point, I subjoin the following instance, an account of which was furnished me by a person, on whose correctness I can depend.

On a rising ground, not far from the village of Ellon, a piece of ground, of a dry gravelly nature, which had been lately cleared of a crop of full-grown Scots firs, was trenched in a very partial and imperfect manner, the roots of the trees being scarcely

ADVANTAGES OF PLANTING.

eradicated. It was then sown with oats, without receiving either lime, dung, or manvu*e of any other description, yet the crop was so luxuriant that a great part of it lodged. The following spring the ground w^as again sown with the same species of grain, without receiving any enrichment, and, when harvest arrived, the crop was unequalled by that of the richest fields, in a neighbourhood which is generally considered as fertile. The experiment was tried a third time, still without manure, and the return was again considerably above an average. The soil, as has already been remarked, was dry and gravelly, and far from possessing any natural qualities that could have been the cause of such extraordinary productiveness. When planted, it had been covered with heath, and, in that state, had not been superior to those waste lands which we occasionally see improved at a vast expence, and which will produce no kind of crop till they receive a great quantity of manure.

Those who have never had an opportunity of seeing old woodlands brought into cultivation, will scarce credit what has now been advanced. That the soil should be enriched by the production of wood, when the experience of ages has proved that it is always exhausted by other crops, will seem to them

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

a paradox of the most extravagant kind. If such readers, however, will be at the trouble to give a little attention to the following suggestions, the fact may appear to them much less unaccountable.

Trees draw their nourishment from a much greater depth than any of the grasses, roots, or different kinds of grain raised by the agriculturist. Most of the latter derive the whole of their subsistence from the part of the soil that lies within a few inches of the surface; but the former, from the superior strength and magnitude of their roots, are enabled to penetrate much farther, and extract food from the very rock which forms the substratum of a great proportion both of our cultivated and uncultivated grounds. This, though it does not account for lands being positively enriched by wood, makes it, at the same time, far less surprising that trees should grow to a large size, and yet not exhaust the upper part of the soil in so great a degree as most of the crops cultivated by the farmer.

There is another circumstance which gives ground in wood a great advantage over that in tillage, which is, that the leaves of the trees are suffered to decay and rot where they fall, and, by this means, an annual addition is made to the depth of the vegetable mould. Now, the leaves of a tree may be

ADVANTAGES OF PLANTING.

considered as bearing the same proportion to the trunk and branches, in respect of the nourishment which they require, as the straw of corn bears to the grain. But the manure which cultivated land receives is, in general, little more than the straw which grows on it, after it has served for food or litter to cattle. Ground in wood, then, actually receives, in the annual fall of the leaves, as much enrichment as the farmer bestows on his land under tillage.

Ground employed in agriculture is exposed, at almost every season of the year, to the full action of the atmosphere, and in the drought and heat of summer much of its strength is evaporated. In land covered with wood the case is entirely different ; as, from the shade afforded by the leaves and branches, very little evaporation takes place. This, then, is another reason that serves, in some measure at least, to explain the seemingly paradoxical fact in question. For, that evaporation has a very powerful tendency to exhaust land, by drawing off and dissipating the more volatile part of the matter, which assists in the process of vegetation, there can be no doubt, when we consider that any kind of dung may be deprived of the greater part of its strength by being long exposed to a dry atmosphere. Nor is it

TNTROnUCTOKY REMARKS.

merely by preserving its own original substance, tbat land in wood has the advantage of cultivated ground. Whatever is extracted from the latter, in the form of vapour, falls again, when condensed, in the shape of rain or dew ; but, instead of descending wholly on the same spots from whence it rose, it is, of course, diffused over the whole space which the clouds containing it may happen to cover, and woods; and moors have as good a chance of receiving it, on its return to the earth, as the ground in tillage. The part of it which falls, either on the cultivated fields, or the naked wastes, may be again evaporated before it has had time to be productive of any bene-, fit, but the portion of it which the woodlands imbibe, is retained to enrich the soil ; for, the umbrage excluding the rays of the sun, there is no possibility of its being extracted a second time. Land covered with trees, therefore, while it never loses any thing, receives, with every fall of rain or of dew, a tribute from the riches of the cultivated part of the country. The advantage derived from this source is greater than will be credited by those who are not aware how much of the substances proper for vegetable nutriment, are exhaled from the land in a gaseous state, during the dry season of the year.

But the principal way in which wood becomes instmmental in enriching land still remains to be noticed. When trees attain a certain size, they attract multitudes of birds, which build their nests and seek shelter among the branches. The dung of these animals is the very richest kind of manure which can be applied to land, and possesses, at least, three times the strength of that commonly used in agriculture. The quantity of it produced during the long series of years which trees require to reach maturity, is, especially where large colonies of crows take up their abode, very considerable, and must have a powerful influence in improving and fertilizing the soil. Though scarce connected with our subject, it may not be improper to remark here, that, in trenching old woodlands, for the purpose of bringing them under cultivation, what was formerly the surface should still be kept uppermost, which may be done by a very simple contrivance, otherwise the part of the soil enriched in this manner will be buried too deep for the crop to reach it.

I am aware it may be objected to all this, that trees in hedge-rows about cultivated fields, are so far from enriching land, that they render it very unproductive for several feet on each side of them, as many a farmer knows by dear-bought experience.

B

INTRODUCTOUY REMARKS.

But we must recollect, that when trees are planted in single hedge-rows, they but very imperfectly exclude the rays of the sun, and cannot prevent evaporation — that their leaves, instead of lying where they fall, are scattered in all directions — and that they allure few or no birds, either to build their nests or take up their nightly habitation among their branches. Besides, the sterility of land near hedge-rows proceeds not wholly from its exhaustion, but partly from the drip and shade of the trees, partly from the soil being rendered boss or hollow by the roots, and partly from the latter making it impossible to plough so deep as would be necessary

* I ought not to omit here to mention among the causes why ground is improved by producing wood, — the minuteness into which its particles are divided by the roots and their Jihres. On taking up a young tree, or even a gooseberry-bush, and shaking the earth from its roots, we find the mould that falls from it as completely reduced to powder, as if it had been passed through a fine sieve. Now, the fact seems undoubted, that land is much increased in fertility, by being brought to this state. TuLL, the inventor of drill husbandry, ascribed so much to pulverization, as to assert, that it answered of itself every purpose of manure. This was undoubtedly carrying a favourite idea to an extravagant length ; but the common practice of agriculture clearly shows, that the fruitfulness of the soil is promoted, in no ordinary degree, by the comminution of its parts.

But, to dismiss a topic which has, perhaps, been insisted on too long, the cultivation of wood is subservient to agriculture in a way different, either from improving the pastures or enriching the soil. Considerable quantities of wood are required in farming, and when a proprietor has to build houses or offices on a farm, he will find it a great saving to have wood fit for the purpose on his own estate. To say nothing of the price of the material itself, the carriage of it, when purchased at a distance, is always inconvenient as well as expensive ; and interferes with the stated work, both of men and cattle employed in agriculture, to a degree that is not only highly vexatious, but productive, at some seasons, of no inconsiderable loss. There are, besides, a number of minor uses for which wood is absolutely necessary in farming, and for these, on account of